Computer Science Stack Exchange
Computer Science Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [interpreters]

52 questions
74
votes
9 answers

What properties of a programming language make compilation impossible?

Question: "Certain properties of a programming language may require that the only way to get the code written in it be executed is by interpretation. In other words, compilation to a native machine code of a traditional CPU is not possible. What are…
Anderson Nascimento Nunes
  • 861
  • 1
  • 7
  • 6
23
votes
11 answers

Would it be wrong to say that the processor (and hardware) is the implementation of an interpreter for machine language?

The question is basically in the title. I know that a computers hardware is of course some physical object, where as the interpreter is some abstract thing that does something abstract with the code it is given. Yet, can we say that the way the…
Quantumwhisp
  • 341
  • 2
  • 9
14
votes
2 answers

What are potential pitfalls with having a minimal kernel that runs managed code?

Suppose I want to build an operating system based on a very small native lower kernel that acts as a managed code interpreter/runtime and a larger upper kernel compiled to a non-native machine language (Java bytecode, CIL, etc.). Examples of similar…
Adam Maras
  • 681
  • 6
  • 11
7
votes
1 answer

Reference request: optimizing procedures on lists in dynamic languages by performing safety checks in advance

For my science fair project, I implemented an optimization to Python's sort routine. The idea is to move the safety checks that have to be carried out during each comparison, e.g. type checks and character-width checks, outside of the sort loop and…
Elliot Gorokhovsky
  • 923
  • 4
  • 15
7
votes
3 answers

Is it possible to go from code to circuit?

I am wondering if it is possible to have a program that interprets programming code and is capable of turning that code into an optimized circuit. Is this possible, and if so, does it exist?
Tyler Scott
  • 173
  • 5
7
votes
1 answer

How are REGEXP implemented in programming languages?

Is there a good general paper about the interpretation or compilation of REGEXP in programming languages for pattern matching, with or without variables? I am not looking for a quick explanation about the construction of DFAs, but for a real paper…
babou
  • 19,645
  • 43
  • 77
6
votes
1 answer

Can Tree Transducers Self-Interpret?

Is it possible for MSO graph/tree transducers to reflect themselves, namely to create an interpreter of tree/graph transducers using tree/graph transducers? If yes, I'll be happy for some design guidelines.
Troy McClure
  • 644
  • 4
  • 10
5
votes
1 answer

Implementing a Compiler with Macros

I've been thinking about embedded languages (domain-specific or otherwise), and in particular the approach where we define a datatype to represent terms of the embedded language, e.g. (in Haskell): data Expr = Numeral Int | Apply Expr…
Warbo
  • 642
  • 3
  • 13
5
votes
2 answers

Implicit complexity and interpretation of total languages

In implicit complexity theory we construct languages that characterize what can be computed in various complexity classes. One major result is Bellantoni and Cook where they show that $FP$ can be characterized by such a language (called system $B$).…
Jake
  • 3,810
  • 21
  • 35
5
votes
2 answers

Interpretation in scripting languages

Why is pure interpretation more common for scripting languages compared to programming languages? I mean, why are programs written in a scripting language not converted to machine language and then executed? From what I have read, one of the…
geek123
  • 51
  • 2
5
votes
1 answer

Closures break induction in correctness proof of interpreter

I'm trying to prove the correctness of an interpreter for a simple extension of untyped lambda-calculus with De Bruijn indices. The interpreter is bounded, i.e. in order to ensure its finiteness it has an additional parameter $n \in \mathbb N$ that…
mell_o_tron
  • 297
  • 1
  • 8
4
votes
0 answers

Substituting "remaining variables" during partial evaluation?

In "Partial Evaluation of Computation Process—An Approach to a Compiler-Compiler" Yoshihiko Futamura wrote: "[Some] portions of a computation process [...] are not evaluated at partial evaluation time, but the values are only substituted for the …
Higemaru
  • 213
  • 1
  • 3
3
votes
2 answers

How does interpreting a script work?

Suppose I have a script (.vbs, for example) that is stored in a file. How does the code in the file get converted into machine instructions? What is between the vbs file and the processor?
developer747
  • 141
  • 1
  • 5
3
votes
0 answers

How to implement scheme's letrec in a lazy dialect?

In SICP, lazy evaluation is defined as delaying the evaluation of procedure arguments until the actual values are needed. (https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/sicp/book/node85.html) letrec can be implemented by creating a closure (an expression…
blue-dino
  • 199
  • 5
3
votes
0 answers

Alternative to a CALL as a composition?

I've seen a numerous interesting abstract machines (i.e. CESK) and evaluators (diverse meta-circular S-expression evaluators, i.e. vau, COLA) and other models (concatenative, SK/Lambda calculus) which implement some novel(?) computational ideas, but…
artemonster
  • 379
  • 2
  • 9
1
2 3 4